Cracking the Whip on Your Word Count: NoRhym-O-ReMo

First, I have no idea what’s up with the formatting of the text on this post. But I have 18 bajillion things to do today, so rather than freak out about it, I’m letting it go.

WHAT?? I know. That’s so un-Ricki.

Anyway.

My apologies for being a bit sparse with the posts as of late. My aforementioned sickness, which lasted several weeks, played a large part in that, as did some freelancing and, of course, the Write-Brained Network.

As per my last post, my online writing community did a reboot of NaNoWriMo last May, and we’re doing it again. NoRhym-O-ReMo stands for No Rhyme or Reason [Writing] Month, and it’s on—right now!

THE RULES

There are no rules.

Well, that’s not entirely true—but, let’s say, you make your own rules. Just write something. Every day. For the month of May. NoRhym-O-ReMo is like NaNoWriMo, but a more accommodating of your schedule.

HUH?

For traditional NaNoWriMo, folks set out to write 1500 words a day—and then, at the end of the month of November (National Novel Writing Month), they have a 50,000-word first draft of something. For those of you unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, click here.

For NoRhym-O-ReMo, let’s be more flexible. Set your own goal for your daily word count. For instance, if you think your schedule will only allow you to comfortably write 500 words/day, fine. That’s your goal. Post it here, and have at it.

You can write one continuous piece or a lot of smaller pieces—or, heck—even just writing prompts.

And if you find your schedule changes, and you are writing more (or less) than you had hoped, adjust your goals as you go.

REPITE, POR FAVOR?

Just set a goal for yourself and DO THE WRITING. And keep us posted about it. Participants are keeping records of their progress over on the WB—and it’s hugely inspiring (and kick-in-the-pantsing) to see other folks succeeding.

WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH WORD COUNT?

As a general rule in the industry, 250 words=1 page. That should help you gauge the amount of words to which you think you can commit per day.

When setting your goal: Don’t be too aggressive. Not that you shouldn’t challenge yourself, but I’m just saying don’t say you want to write 3K/day if there’s no way you can feasibly do that! You don’t want to make it impossible to reach your daily goals—that might discourage you from continuing. However, don’t be wimpy either. Throw out a number you’d be happy reaching per day, and get those words down.

OK, so what are you waiting for? If you’re not already a member of the WB, get on over there. It’s painless—really. You’ll meet a lot of fantastic writing folks and you’ll even get to keep your first born. (Well, probably.)

If we get enough participants, I’ll be offering up a prize or two. Stay tuned . . .

If you’re looking to get serious about a new manuscript, if you want to finish/up your word count on an existing one, or if you just need a little incentive to write whatever it is you’re writing get on over to NoRhym-O-ReMo and DO IT.

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10 thoughts on “Cracking the Whip on Your Word Count: NoRhym-O-ReMo”

Awesome.
I’ve already started my challenge yesterday. I didn’t even know you guys were going to do something like that. My goal is 1000 words a day. I started May 2, and will be reporting at the WB network. 🙂

Sure! Cool — well, you won’t be able to update us while you’re in the hospital (Yikes! Hope everything’s OK!), but you can keep us posted when you’re out. Eek — does that mean you’ll be counting words — like by hand? 🙂